A Few Quick Items: Camden South Capitol Project Website, ANC Supports Wharf PUD, MLK Drive Unveiled

- In the latest FRONT Page News e-newsletter from the Capitol Riverfront BID, the Camden South Capitol apartment project is featured - the first rental apartment building to start construction in SW in decades. The 276-unit apartment building is under construction at the northeast corner of South Capitol and O Street. Although the building is technically outside the borders of the BID, the Capitol Riverfront is keeping tabs on the project. A website has been set up for the project and includes information on in-unit features such as:Energy Star stainless steel appliances, electric oven ranges with ceramic glass cook tops, solar shades, 42" upper cabinets, double vanities in select units, garden soaking tubs, and stand-up showers in select units. Community features will include a rooftop pool with BBQ grills and outdoor fire pit, cyber cafe, and a resident gaming lounge with kitchen. Camden South Capitol is being developed by Camden Property Trust and designed by WDG Architecture. The building is scheduled to deliver in the summer of 2013.

Rendering of the rear of Camden South Capitol courtesy of WDG Architecture

- At Monday's special ANC 6D meeting on The Wharf PUD, the commissioners voted unanimously to support the Stage 1 PUD application after several amendments were approved.  Back in July, the ANC gave conditional support to the PUD but had 27 concerns that needed to be addressed by the Hoffman Madison Waterfront team before the commissioners could give their full support. Since that meeting, HMW has been in discussions with the ANC and most of the concerns have been addressed. Here is a link to the responses to the ANC's concerns by HMW.

Thanks to Jason Kopp for covering the meeting via Twitter!

- Mayor Gray and other dignitaries were on hand Thursday morning to help unveil MLK Drive at Maine Avenue and 14th Street, a symbolic renaming of sections of road in the District linking Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue east of the Anacostia to the new MLK Memorial along the Tidal Basin. The dedication ceremony for the memorial was scheduled for Sunday, but has been postponed until September or October due to Hurricane Irene.

A Few Quick Items: MLK Memorial Dedication, Nationals Neighborhood Game, Mixed Reviews for Station 4, L'Enfant Plaza Office Building for Sale

- On Wednesday, Mayor Gray announced a list of events leading up to the dedication ceremony of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial along the Tidal Basin. Most of the events will take place at the MLK Library downtown, but on Tuesday, August 23rd, DC residents will get to tour the memorial from 8am to 8pm - days before the official dedication. Timed tickets will be distributed to tour the memorial. Stay tuned for details on how to receive those tickets. The official dedication ceremony will take place on August 28th at 11am. Prior to the dedication, there will be a musical tribute to Dr. King from 10-11am and a concert from 2-4pm. All three events are free and open to the public. In addition, the Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation has a slew of other events planned leading up to the dedication.

- August 25 is the make-up date for the Nationals Neighborhood Game at Nationals Park, which was rescheduled due to a rain-out from April 16th. Locals will be singing the national anthem, throwing the first pitch, and saying "play ball!". There are some free tickets available, so contact your ANC 6D commissioner or SWNA representative for details.

- The Washington Post's food critic Tom Sietsema recently wrote a review of Station 4 and it wasn't a good one. Here is a snippet:

Precious little of that magic surfaced in a recent dinner at Station 4, which started with breadsticks flavored with dried black olives and continued with a riff on a peanut butter and jelly sandwich using almonds, tomato jelly, foie gras and brioche. (Imagine really sweet French toast with some meat in each bite.) [Orlando] Amaro's "San Francisco style" cioppino is something no Bay Area resident would recognize as the classic robust seafood stew. "At least the kitchen didn't overcook the seafood," said the optimist at the table.

A waiter talks up the octopus, and we follow his lead. The herb-marinated, char-grilled seafood with potato confit cooked in duck fat and a trail of smoked paprika mayonnaise is the best thing we eat all night.

Station 4's pizza may be the worst. The pie is so without charm, we leave all but two slices behind.

Come to think of it, the previously frozen french fries, supposedly cooked in duck fat but revealing no such sign, are mediocre, too. Pappardelle with short ribs, thick and heavy, ignore the reality show outside, where the thermometer is pushing triple digits. A side dish of Brussels sprouts (hey, chef, it's summer!) is overcooked.

Meanwhile, it seems Metromix went to a completely different restaurant.  Here is some of what they had to say about Station 4:

When handpicking the chef for his new modern American restaurant Station 4, owner Med Lahlou decided go for a more nuevo route than new. And the results have been spectacular. Famed Venezuelan chef Orlando Amaro—whose Blue Moon has been named one of Miami’s top restaurants—has added his own flair in his signature dishes.

The restaurant’s location is a few blocks from the Southwest Waterfront (and across the street from the Metro station of the same name), and as you’d imagine seafood plays a key role in the menu. Amaro’s charred octopus is an excellent choice from sea, with potato confit, smoked paprika aioli and tomato-feta tartar. The combination makes for a succulent and crispy texture to the octopus.

Other excellent seafood options at the restaurant are the San Francisco-style cioppino—made with fresh crab, shrimp, mussels, clams and calamari in a saffron-tomato broth and served with a toasted baguette—as well as the sautéed calamari served with lemon-oil tapenade and squid ink vinaigrette.

There's only one way to find out which of these reviews is more correct...go check it out for yourself!

-  It was reported last week in the Washington Business Journal that 950 L'Enfant Plaza was put on the market by Heyman Properties. The office building is the south building at the plaza and is one of the buildings not owned by JBG (the other is the USPS headquarters), which is in the midst of renovating the retail center and plans to build a hotel, office, and maybe apartments.

Photos from my ART and CaBi Ride Before the "Rapture"

Water taxi this way!



The Dolley Madison docked at the Gangplank Marina.



The back side of Cantina Marina facing the Washington Channel.



Going around Hains Point and the Naval War College.



The Washington Monument and the Old Post Office Building.



About to pass under the Memorial Bridge.



On the other side of the Memorial Bridge.

Riding past the new MLK Memorial - under construction along the Tidal Basin.



The DC World War I Memorial is getting refurbished across from the MLK Memorial.

A Couple Quick Items: Commander Kamperin Retires, King Memorial Celebration

- MPD's First District Commander David Kamperin announced his retirement last week after 32 years of service in law enforcement (almost 26 years with MPD). In his email announcing his retirement, Kamperin mentions some of his accomplishments as commander:

Over the past nearly four years we have accomplished many things within the First District: increased foot patrols throughout the community, decreased response time for calls for service, improved customer service, enhanced Community Policing within the Patrol Service Areas and annual crime reductions. In 2010, through the dedication and efforts of the men and women of the First District, working closely with the community, 1D received the Department’s Crime Reduction Award.

First District Headquarters moved from 4th and E Street in 2009 to the former Bowen Elementary School along M Street.  The former headquarters building was demolished and the city's new Consolidated Forensic Laboratory is rising on the site. 

Kamperin's last day will be May 21, but the Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) for 1D will hold an event this evening at 7pm.  The event will take place in the community room at 1D HQ.

- The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is getting closer to completion along the Tidal Basin and plans are underway to celebrate the opening in August. The Washington Post reports there will be a week-long celebration leading to the unveiling on August 29th. The dedication will take place on the 48th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  Here are some details from the article:

The dedication will take place at 11 a.m. in West Potomac Park, near the site of the memorial, which is on Independence Avenue, southwest of the World War II Memorial. There will be musical tributes in the park before and after the dedication. Among the week’s events, a public expo marking King’s legacy will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Aug. 25-28.The memorial will also have an inscription wall, water features, landscaping and a bookstore and visitors center. Reserved tickets to the dedication will be distributed through an online lottery system, the foundation said. People can request up to two tickets by visiting DedicateTheDream.org. Visitors must register by 11:59 p.m. on May 31 to be included in the lottery. Ticket recipients for the seated and reserved standing areas will be notified by e-mail on June 15. Public standing areas that do not require tickets will also be available.

A Few Quick Items

- The Washington Post reports that the main MLK Memorial sculpture is stranded in China because the Greek government (who volunteered to ship the sculpture to DC for free) doesn't have enough money to do it due to its economic crisis.

- The third installment of the Transformers movie series may shoot part of the film on the National Mall, but the producers are running into resistance from the National Park Service, according to The Washington Post, because of the types of scenes they want to film, including a car race on the gravel paths along the Mall and simulated explosions on Independence Avenue.

- An unclaimed bag at C & 6th Street caused some street closures earlier this evening, according to The Washington Post, but by 8:15pm, C Street was reopened by MPD.

- The WashCycle complains there aren't enough bike parking spaces at Waterfront Station. Also, there was a complaint that there is no loading area in front of Safeway and cars are blocking the bike lane on 4th Street (umm...the loading area is in the garage).

MLK Memorial Construction Camera Installed

A construction camera has been recently installed at the Washington, DC Martin Luther King National Memorial site, rising along the Tidal Basin. The memorial is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2011.

Design Team Selected for Randall School

According to DCist, a trio of architecture firms has been selected to work on the Randall School redevelopment project on I Street. The article states that Bing Thom Architects (the same firm that designed Arena Stage) will be the principal firm, along with landscape architects Oehme van Sweden and DC-based architectural history and historic preservation firm EHT Traceries, Inc. Oehme van Sweden has worked on other projects in Southwest, including the World War II Memorial and the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.

If you recall back in February, a partnership between Telesis Corporation (a DC-based developer) and CACB Holdings LLC (owned by the Rubell family that owns the Capitol Skyline Hotel across the street from Randall) signed a purchase and sale agreement for Randall School from the Corcoran. Plans include a contemporary art museum, 225-key hotel, and a residential building. The museum will be 20,000 square feet in size and will house the Rubell Family Collection/Contemporary Arts Foundation, which will serve as a satellite location for the Rubell Foundation's main museum in Miami, Florida. The hotel and residential building will be approximately 480,000 square feet. The sale has to be approved by the DC Council, since the original sale by the city to the Corcoran has a covenant that stipulated that the intended use of the building would be a college, which won't be the case under the new development plan.

Update on King Memorial

DCMud gives a good description of the history of the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, as well as what visitors will expect to see once the memorial is complete next summer. The memorial is located on the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin - about midway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. This follows a WaPo article from February that describes the process of how components of the memorial will be shipped to Washington from China.

King Memorial Sculpture Prepped for Shipping

In today's Washington Post, there's an article describing the process of how the MLK Memorial will be erected along the Tidal Basin. As early as March or April, the granite components of the memorial will be shipped on barges from China to Baltimore, then transported to Washington, where it will be assembled with cranes and be ready for the grand opening by the summer of 2011. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a construction permit in October 2009 and site work began in late December. Below is a description of the memorial, from the Post article:

The King memorial, located not far from the Lincoln Memorial where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, is to be built on a crescent-shaped, four-acre site amid the city's famed cherry trees. The three main elements resemble a simulated stone mountain from which the center has been carved out and placed by itself in the foreground. The centerpiece -- named the Stone of Hope for a line from the 1963 speech -- is 30 feet 8 inches tall and bears the image of King in a business suit with his arms folded...The two background pieces -- together called the Mountain of Despair from the same line in the speech -- are of similar size and frame a walkway through which visitors may pass to get to the King sculpture.

Included in the article is a graphic showing how large the King sculpture will be compared to other statues in DC. The Stone of Hope will be about ten feet taller than the statue of Thomas Jefferson at the Jefferson Memorial, Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, and the Statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome. The memorial was designed by Roma Design Group of San Francisco and the sculpture designed by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin. Above is a rendering of a portion of the memorial, from the MLK Memorial website.

A Few Quick Items

- Construction began at the end of December on the MLK Memorial on a four-acre site along the Tidal Basin. A construction permit was issued by the National Park Service in October for the memorial, which should be complete by the summer of 2011. Above is a photo of a plaque on the spot where the memorial will be located, near the FDR Memorial.

- In today's Breaking Ground blog from the Washington Business Journal, there was a post about office building deliveries in the city. During the fourth quarter, the only office building that delivered in DC was Constitution Center. Even though the blog says the building is delivered, there is still construction fencing around the structure as finishing touches are being made. It is still vacant.

- According to an article in Globest.com, the GSA renewed a lease at the end of 2009 on behalf of the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health & Human Services. The lease is a five-year renewal of 187,000 square feet of space at the Aerospace Building on 901 D Street.

MLK Memorial About Ready to Start Construction

According to an article in The Washington Post, the planned MLK Memorial near the Tidal Basin has received all necessary approvals from the National Capital Planning Commission in a special meeting held on Monday night. With these approvals in hand, the National Park Service should issue building permits by early November so construction can begin on this long-awaited memorial. The Post article describes the memorial as follows:

The memorial is planned for a four-acre crescent-shaped site amid the cherry blossoms on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin. The centerpiece is to be a 2 1/2 -story granite sculpture of the slain civil rights leader. Called the Stone of Hope, it depicts King standing with his arms folded as if emerging from the stone. At 28 feet, it will be eight feet taller than the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the memorial to the 16th president and will rest on pilings driven as far as 50 feet down to bedrock.

Construction should be complete in late summer of 2011. Above is a rendering of the planned memorial, from the MLK Memorial website.

Update: The WBJ reports that Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed a construction permit on Thursday at a ceremony on the National Mall, which means the memorial can now be built!

MLK Memorial Creators to Apply Next Week for Building Permits

According to this Washington Post article, the design of the MLK Memorial was approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. From the article: "The unanimous approval of the commission appeared to clear the way for construction of the $120 million crescent-shape memorial on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin near the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial...Initial utility work began on the site in August, and the memorial is scheduled to be completed in 2010." The creators of the memorial will apply to the Department of Interior for building permits next week. As I mentioned in a previous post, the commission had some issues regarding the design of the sculpture of Dr. King, however, they ended up approving the memorial with conditions.

MLK Memorial Design is Approved

An article in the Washington Business Journal states that the National Capital Planning Commission approved the final designs for the MLK Memorial on September 4th. From the article: "The features approved by the National Capital Planning Commission include a semicircle-shaped wall inscribed with King’s words, a stone “mountain of despair” referencing a phrase from his speeches, a carved statue of King, a visitors building and red maple trees nearby...The King memorial, to be built across the tidal basin from the Jefferson Memorial, will be the first to be built since the World War II Memorial was completed in 2004. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2010 is expected to cost $120 million." Here's a link to my post in June about the project. The rendering is from the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.

Design of MLK Memorial Altered

In today's Washington Post, an article states that members from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts were satisfied with design changes to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial planned for the Tidal Basin between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. The granite that will surround King's likeness will be moved forward a couple inches to give the impression that King is emerging from the granite instead of being placed into the granite. Wrinkles on his forehead will be removed and a hint of a smile will be placed on his face. Although the commission had concerns about King's arms being folded (they thought it made him look too confrontational and was reminiscent of the "Social Realist style" popular in communist countries), the folded arms will remain in the design. Construction is expected to start by the end of the year. The newest memorial to grace the National Mall is set for completion by Spring 2010.